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Neanderthals: The Gift That Keeps On Giving
No hard feelings, ancestor!
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The Pansy Connection
“Is there anything of mine that you’d like when I die? Tell me now, so I can make note of it,” my sister said. (Not that she’s going anywhere anytime soon, I hope, but yeah, it never hurts to have all your funerial ducks in a row.) “Just the pansy picture,” I replied. “As a…
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I Sure Could Use a Nisse
My mother was first generation American. Her parents came from Denmark. So as I grew up, she would sometimes tell me Danish folklore, especially around Christmas. I was particularly fascinated with stories of the nisse. The nisse was an elf-like creature who lived on your farm, usually in the barn or the attic, and if…
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Generational Changes
Recently I had the good fortune to meet a distant cousin. Her maternal great-grandfather and my paternal great-grandfather were brothers. And all this time she’s lived about 5 miles from me. Talk about a small world. That part of the family comes from France, and as we talked over lunch, a few things struck me.…
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Time Capsules
Just before I moved to Seattle, I drove over to the house I used to own in Florida to say goodbye to it. I almost drove past it without recognizing it, such were the number of improvements the current owner had made. That was kind of disconcerting. One of the things that he changed was…
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Breaking the Cycle
I know someone who is a chronic worrier. She comes by it honestly. Everyone in her family is a chronic worrier. Just being around them makes your stress level go up. It makes me wonder if this is genetic or behavioral or a combination of both. Anxiety disorders can definitely run in families. But you…
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Family Norms
One spring break in college I went home with a friend. Half Catholic Italian, half Jewish, hers was a noisy, welcoming household. Neighbors would come and go without knocking on their door, and help themselves to whatever happened to be cooking on the stove. The house was full of light and crackled with energy. And…
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Roots
If things go as planned I’m about to uproot myself and move 3000 miles across the country to a place I’ve never been, where I know no one. That’s pretty radical, I suppose. But my roots have never been deep. I have always sort of envied people with deep roots. People who go home for…
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Sealed Without Your Consent–Mormon Ordinances by Proxy
The LDS Church performs a wide variety of ordinances, some of which are called saving ordinances, which they believe are required for salvation. One such ordinance is called sealing, and it seals you to spouses and other family members for all eternity. Fine and dandy and more power to them, I say. Everyone is entitled…